The best part of having your own home office is that you can set it up any way that you want…

When organizing your home office, first ask yourself this: What do you envision your home office to be like?  Will you be paying bills in your home office? Will it strictly be just for your business?  Are you going to be sharing your home office with anyone else in the household?  Are you going to be storing inventory in your home office?  Will you allow personal mail to go through your office?  Will your children be doing homework in your home office?  Will it be a themed home office like the one pictured above (thanks to JAGwired for sharing) Decide what you will allow in your home office.

Once you’ve envisioned what your home office will be used for, set-up zones.  Think about where you would like to place your desk, computer, printer, telephone, files, office supplies, books, memoirs, memorabilia, and mail that comes though your home office daily.  Sometimes electrical outlets in your wall will dictate where you place your desk and computer, so that you don’t have wires going across the your home office floor.

Place files vertically so that you can see them and easily access them.  If these files were in a pile on your desk, they could potentially fall over and get all mixed up.  Place office supplies that you use on a regular basis near or on your desk and the rest of the overflow of office supplies in a designated area.  You could store the rest of the office supplies in a decorated box that matches your office decor, in a desk drawer or cabinet.  I suggesting storing overflow items that you least use in higher shelves and cabinets and items that you use more often in lower shelves and drawers so that you can get to them easily.

Communicate with the people you share your home office with, where things should go when they are done utilizing them, this will help you to maintain your home office.  Cheers to having a functional and inspiring home office!